GoFundMe Effort Launched To Stop Norden Distribution Center

NORWALK, CT — A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help pay for attorney and expert consultant fees to thwart a proposed warehouse distribution center at the former Norden Systems complex in East Norwalk.

The Sasqua Hills Neighborhood Association launched the page Friday, and as of 2 p.m. Saturday, it had generated $7,500 toward a goal of $15,000. The group has retained Bridgeport-based attorney Joel Green to spearhead the opposition effort, which SHNA estimates could cost $50,000.

"If the warehouse comes into being 36,000 trucks will rumble down our streets every year going past three schools," the Sasqua Hills group wrote on GoFundMe. "Every Norwalker will feel the negative effects of this. Your quality of life will be impacted by even worse traffic congestion and probable gridlock. By air pollution. By truck noise. By creating unsafe conditions for pedestrians, bicyclists, dog walkers. By diminished property values. By a lack of future investment in a community that could evolve into a truck depot instead of village district."

On Saturday, more than 70 residents rallied on East Avenue in Norwalk to show their opposition to the project, which is proposed to use 300,000 square feet of the nearby former Norden Systems complex on Norden Place.

Many in the crowd carried signs opposing the project, and repeatedly shouted "No!" when the development was mentioned.

"The warehouse project is expected to bring more than 100 trucks a day into East Norwalk, that's 36,000 trucks a year," said Farhan Memon, president of the Sasqua Hills Neighborhood Association. He and Diane Cece, president of the East Norwalk Neighborhood Association, organized the Saturday rally.

"Our streets weren't built to handle this traffic," Memon added. "They are used by pedestrians, bicyclists, and residents going about their daily lives shopping and running their daily errands. Having semi trailer trucks on our streets day and night will make them extremely dangerous."

The project's developers — Ridgefield Park, New Jersey-based KABR Group and White Plains, New York-based Benerofe Properties — argue the massive former manufacturing facility is currently under utilized. The increase in truck traffic that residents oppose, KABR managing member Adam Altman told Patch, might be minimally more than there is now, but nowhere near what the facility would generate at its height of activity years ago.

Altman, who expressed confidence that the project may gain Zoning Commission approval, adds that the project will bring nearly 175 direct and indirect jobs to the area, most of which will be high-paying logistics jobs.

Cece said that the truck traffic the project will generate will adversely increase the level of pollution in the area, and the facility's presence in East Norwalk could lead to a decrease in property values.

Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, who attended the rally with his wife, Lucia Rilling, has not taken a public stand for or against the project, but he said he has some concerns about potential damage the city's infrastructure could suffer. He has received dozens of emails from residents opposing the project, which he said he forwards to the Zoning Commission.

The commission is scheduled to hold another public hearing on the proposal on Jan. 7; a recent public hearing on the project drew more than 150 attendees virtually via computer.

Click here to view the GoFundMe page.

Editor's Note: GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner.